Here we are, once again — and for the 16th time — at the threshold of a new edition of the Arab Film Festival Berlin. This edition unfolds in turbulent times for the Arab region shaped by devastating violence, new waves of displacement, and ongoing economic and political instability. Yet it is also marked by resolute resistance and the enduring hope for new beginnings. The films in this year’s selection engage with many of the challenges faced by Arab communities in the region and the diaspora while also giving voice to the strivings for change, liberation, and prosperity. As such, the ALFILM Selection includes a wide range of feature fiction films, documentaries, and three short film programs.
The plight of the Sudanese people — whose revolutionary hopes have been brutally thwarted under the weight of an atrocious war that has displaced nearly 10 million people — comes to the fore in Hind Meddeb’s poetic Sudan, Remember Us. Meanwhile, Gazan Tales by Mahmoud Nabil Ahmed offers intimate insights into the everyday life of Palestinians in the besieged territory shortly before the outbreak of the all-out Israeli war that left the enclave in ruins, killing more than 50,000 people to date, and displacing almost the entire population.
Scandar Copti’s brilliantly scripted Happy Holidays portrays a state of powerlessness and relinquished control, embodied by the struggle of a Palestinian middle-class family in Israel to cling to their privileges and preserve an illusion of “the good life”. Freedom from the normative grip of bourgeois patriarchy, Copti shows us, is inseparable from that of the militarized violence that perpetuates the structural inequality of Palestinians. The Lebanese film Moondove by Karim Kassem, although set in a different context, also gestures toward a similar state of powerlessness — or rather, a willing surrender to a pervasive sense of decay and loss that touches both people and nature: A condition exacerbated by the Lebanese state’s failure to provide the inhabitants of a rural area with basic infrastructure.
The war that struck Lebanon last year, causing a devastating loss in life and the destruction of neighborhoods, is also present in this year’s selection — albeit from a highly unconventional perspective. In A Frown Gone Mad by Omar Mismar, the clients of a beauty salon specializing in Botox and fillers share their thoughts on the looming war through personal stories and anecdotes. These unusual yet engaging conversations reveal an unyielding endurance in the face of adversity and unrelenting crisis. For some, even at the edge of hardship, there is always time to smooth out the traces of time.
The hauntings of crushed revolutions in both Tunisia and Egypt, and the unrealized yearning for a dignified life among the suffering majorities of both countries are palpable in their contemporary film productions, though often conveyed through nuanced forms of storytelling that navigate the pressures of increasing censorship. In the Tunisian film Red Path, Lotfi Achour foregrounds the state’s complacency through deliberate ignorance and absence, failing to protect the poor inhabitants of the Mghila Mountain from the constant threat of landmines and the violence of militant jihadists who control the area. The film’s narrative unfolds in a dreamlike register through images and painterly compositions rendered with remarkable precision. In the Egyptian film Seeking Haven for Mr. Rambo by Khaled Mansour, the main characters, Hasan and his dog Rambo, live in a world shaped by cruelty where the powerful dictate the rules and the weak are trampled upon. Threatened with eviction from their home, they embark on a thrilling journey in search of salvation. The journey sheds light on the daunting realities of contemporary Egypt where much of the country’s younger generations live under the weight of poverty, fear, and a lack of prospects. Street dogs may be wretched but at least Rambo has a chance to escape.
A shared theme in several documentaries in this year’s selection — all of them their director’s first feature — is the filmmakers’ urge to explore the histories of their own parents and families, revealing entanglements between the personal and the broader sociopolitical contexts within which they exist. Bassam Mortada in Abo Zaabal 89, Farah Kassem in We Are Inside, and Leila Albayaty in From Abdul to Leila each attempt to reconnect with their fathers, navigating through trauma, lost dreams, and untold secrets — whether in Cairo, Tripoli or Baghdad. Albayaty reflects on the migration trajectories of her own family and herself, as does Samira El Mouzghibati who explores the unspoken dimensions of her parents’ migration from Morocco to Belgium in (Y)our Mother — an experience that cast long shadows over the lives of her family members and shaped their relationships with others and with each other. At the heart of the narrative stands her mother. Her silence, her melancholy, and the gravitas etched into her face seem to reveal the deep imprint of a transgenerational wound.
If the year was marked by a series of tragic events — from the ongoing massacres and dire humanitarian crises in Gaza and Sudan, to the recurrent Lebanon, Syria and Yemen — one major event sparked a shimmer of hope for the region: the fall of the Assad regime in Syria after a brutal war that devastated the country and displaced much of its population. Anas Zawahri’s My Memory is Full of Ghosts invites us to confront the layers of physical and emotional devastation the Syrian war has inflicted on the historic city of Homs and its inhabitants. The narrative poetically interweaves the accounts of several characters as they struggle to come to terms with their sense of time and place in a home that has become a dwelling for ghosts. Another Arab country long troubled by natural disasters, ethnic conflicts and a protracted civil war, Somalia remains largely ignored by both Arab and Western media. Mo Harawe’s film The Village Next to Paradise offers a poignant portrait of life’s hardships there, subtly hinting at the complicity of imperial powers in exacerbating the population’s suffering.
The opening and closing films of the festival—To a Land Unknown by Mehdi Fleifel and Yunan by Ameer Fakher Eldin, respectively—are two masterpieces that explore parallel trajectories of a condition that continues to overshadow the modern Arab existence: the diasporic condition. While Fleifel’s film opens a window on the tragedy of Palestinian refugees stuck in an existential limbo at the gates of Europe, where every venture to cling to hope seems to inevitably break, Yunan captures the torment of an exiled, middle-class Arab man who, burdened by estrangement, remains suspended within the memories of a home that can no longer exist.
Over the past 16 years, ALFILM has remained committed to engaging with the visions, ambitions, and hopes for change, liberation, and transformation within our communities—both in the region and in the diaspora. With an insatiable passion for justice and an ardent love for the art of cinema, we continue to cultivate spaces for reflection, resistance, and interconnection. This year, we look forward to sharing this mission once again with our audience in Berlin—and for many years to come.
Artistic Director
Iskandar Abdalla
Films of the 16th ALFILM SELECTION
